A Man for All Seasons Marriage Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from A Man for All Seasons.

Quote #4

KING: I have no queen! Catherine's not my wife! No priest can make her so. They that say she is my wife are not only liars, but traitors! Yes, traitors! That I will not brook now! Treachery! I will not brook. It maddens me! It is a deadly canker in the body politic, and I will have it out.

The king is essentially trying to bully More into accepting his marriage with threats. He's not highlighting the fact that he's breaking with the Church over more than just the marriage—he's causing a fairly major rupture. He's oblivious to More's real reasons for objecting to the move—the greater questions of spiritual authority, going beyond the mere marriage.

Quote #5

CROMWELL: Rich, I know a man who wants to change his woman. Normally a matter of small importance, but in this case... it's our liege, Lord Henry, the eighth of that name. Which is a quaint way of saying that if he wants to change his woman, he will. And our job as administrators... is to minimise the inconvenience which this is going to cause. That's our only job, Rich, to minimise the inconvenience of things.

Cromwell doesn't see Henry's divorce and remarriage as issues of spiritual authority—it's a simpler, practical problem, trying to "change his woman." More sees the issue in an entirely different light, demonstrating how divergent the two men really are.

Quote #6

ALICE: As for understanding, I understand you're the best man I ever met or ever likely to. And if you go, God knows why, I suppose. Though as God's my witness, God's kept deadly quiet about it. And if anyone wants to know my opinion of the King and his Council, he only has to ask for it!

MORE: Why, it's a lion I married. A lion. A lion. This is good. It's very good.

More's marriage is significantly different from the king's. While the king gets divorced and marries Anne Boleyn for reasons related to producing a male heir, we see the intense personal loyalty that More and Alice have. It's not a form of fidelity that would exist for Henry.